Highly dispersed zinc phosphate microdomains in mesoporous silica

Abstract

In situ immobilization of crystalline zinc phosphate nuclei in the mesoporous silica material resulted in a highly ordered 2D-hexagonal mesoporous material with evenly dispersed crystalline NaZnPO 4 microdomains in its matrix using the self-assembly of cationic surfactant under hydrothermal synthesis condition. Four samples with different Si:Zn:P:Na mole ratios have been prepared. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the as-synthesized as well as template-free samples indicated the presence of mesophase in each case. N 2 adsorption data indicated mesoporosity in the samples together with the existence of crystalline NaZnPO 4 phase for the materials synthesized with Si/Zn mole ratio 5-12. 29Si MAS NMR results showed high value of the Q 4/Q 3 ratio in these materials suggesting highly crosslinked structure. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.